Cold Fusion Patent Fight Could Be Developing in Italy

A legal battle over patents on cold fusion technology could be developing in Italy. One patent for cold fusion technology has already been granted for Andrea Rossi’s energy catalyzer or e-cat device in May.

This blog reports that three more patents for a similar nickel-hydrogen Cold Fusion device have been filed by Francesco Piantelli. Piantelli who did cold fusion research with Rossi’s partner Sergio Focardi has formed his own company NichEnergy to develop a similar low energy nuclear reactor.

Rossi and other scientists with e-cat

It is not known if these patents will affect Rossi’s efforts to patent the energy catalyzer in other countries. Rossi has licensed e-cat technology to Defkalion in Greece and AmpEnergo in the United States. No patents for the device have been granted outside Italy.

Francesco Piantelli

It also unclear if Piantelli plans to challenge Rossi’s cold fusion patent or if Rossi will contest Piantelli’s filings. Patent infringement lawsuits are common in some countries including the United States.

If a legal battle did develop it is hard to say who would win. Rossi was the first to build, test and patent device. Piantelli reportedly does not have a working reactor, Rossi does. Yet Piantelli apparently made the discovery that led to the process in 1989. He also reportedly has devised a comprehensive theory to back up his research, which Rossi may not have.

A legal battle over patents could delay the commercialization of cold fusion. It could also drag on for years and make it difficult to license the technology. If Rossi and Defkalion are successful with their generator test in October there will be probably be more patents filed and possibly lawsuits. This is only the beginning of the battle not the end.

Such conflicts over inventions are hardly new. Guglielmo Marconi and Nikolai Tesla spent years in court fighting over who actually invented radio. The courts eventually sided with Tesla but he never got any money because the patents had run out.

Related search:

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3 Responses to Cold Fusion Patent Fight Could Be Developing in Italy

The world needs cold fusion technology now! Most people are not aware of the horrendous nuclear disaster in Japan. We need to stop building Nuclear Power Plants, they are expensive and very dangerous. Rossi and Piantelli: do not let a patent war slow down or stop progress on this important technology.
Thank you guys for this important discovery. Even space travel could see great benefit from a Cold Fusion Engine.
jdh

I agree, NASA is apparently interested in such a device. Dennis M. Bushnell at their Langley Laboratory in Virginia is working on it. A patent war would not stop progress, the patent war between Marconi and Telsa did not stop the development of radio. It dragged on until 1944 when the US Supreme Court ruled for Tesla, who had just died. He never got a cent. My guess is a patent war like the one raging between Google and the Apple/Microsoft/Oracle cartel in the US wireless industry would only facilitate development. Note Robert Godes could also have a good claim.